Bannister Wines

The historic town of Geyserville isn’t exactly a happening place, only 10 minutes north of Healdsburg they couldn’t be more different. While Hburg has the lovely lawn in the town square and shady trees, Geyserville seems at least 5º warmers with all the direct sunshine and dusty drought conditions. Seeking shade and something to wet our whistles between appointments, we stumbled into Bannister Wines.

Bannister is a tasting room that doesn’t quite seem to know what it’s doing with itself just yet. Housed in an old bank, the inside still has the teller windows and the original vault door. The rest of the space with the white walls and custom lighting fixtures exudes a gallery feel; unsurprisingly, the owner is an artist: Jake Messing. All of this isn’t too much out of the ordinary but then upon entering the vault there’s a jewelry shop (the owner’s wife) and then a bohemian back patio. It’s all styled beautifully but doesn’t seem to have a cohesive thought.

I explain all this because it perhaps gives you a sense of the wine. The grapes seem to come from all over with Riesling from Mendocino, Chardonnay from Alexander Valley, Pinot from the Russian River, and Zinfandel from Dry Creek. We’re not usually fans of rosé made in the saignée method even when it’s spelled correctly. Call us old-fashioned but we prefer rosé made for the sake of rosé, not as a byproduct of red wine fermentation.

We did, however, end up purchasing a bottle of the Scheurebe. Which if you’re like: huh? So were we. Scheurebe (aka Sämling 88) is a white wine varietal often grown in Germany and Austria. Its father is Reisling and takes on many of its floral characteristics.

Also: why “bannister.” It has nothing to do with the bank or painting. There isn’t a bannister in the space. And then the logo is a basket and the flights are named after vocal ranges. WHAT?